Resistive and capacitive touch panels are used as input devices for computers and mobile devices. One type of capacitive touch panel, projected capacitance touch panels, is often used for mobile devices because an exterior layer may be made of glass, providing a hard surface which is resistant to scratching. An example of a projected capacitance touch panel is described in US 2010/0079384 A1.
Projected capacitance touch panels operate by detecting changes in electric fields caused by the proximity of a conductive object. The location at which a projected capacitance touch panel is touched is often determined using an array or grid of capacitive sensors. Although projected capacitance touch panels can usually differentiate between single-touch events and multi-touch events, they suffer the drawback of not being able to sense pressure. Thus, projected capacitance touch panels tend to be unable to distinguish between a relatively light tap and a relatively heavy press. A touch panel that can sense pressure can allow a user to interact with a device in new ways by providing additional information to simply position of a touch.
Different approaches have been proposed to allow a touch panel to sense pressure. One approach is to provide capacitive sensors which include a gap whose size can be reduced by applied pressure, so as to produce a measurable difference in the mutual capacitance. For example, US 2014/043289 A describes a pressure sensitive capacitive sensor for a digitizer system which includes an interaction surface, at least one sensing layer operable to sense interaction by mutual capacitive sensing, and an additional layer comprising resilient properties and operable to be locally compressed responsive to pressure locally applied during user interaction with the capacitive sensor. However, the need for a measurable displacement can make it more difficult to use a glass touch surface and can cause problems with material fatigue after repeated straining.
Other pressure sensitive touch panels have proposed using one or more discrete force sensors supporting a capacitive touch panel, such that pressure applied to the capacitive touch panel is transferred to one or more sensors located behind the panel or disposed around the periphery. For example, US 2013/0076646 A1 describes using strain gauges with a force sensor interface which can couple to touch circuitry. WO 2012/031564 A1 describes a touch panel including a first panel, a second panel, and a displacement sensor sandwiched between the first panel and the second panel. The displacement sensors, such as capacitive or piezoresistive sensors, are placed around the edge of the second panel. However, it can be difficult to distinguish the pressure of multiple touches using sensors located behind a touch panel or disposed around the periphery.
Other pressure sensitive touch panels have been proposed which attempt to combine capacitive touch sensing with force sensitive piezoelectric layers. For example, WO 2009/150498 A2 describes a device including a first layer, a second layer, a third layer, a capacitive sensing component coupled to the first layer, and a force sensing component coupled to the first layer and the third layer and configured to detect the amount of force applied to the second layer. WO 2015/046289 A1 describes a touch panel formed by stacking a piezoelectric sensor and an electrostatic sensor. The piezoelectric sensor is connected to a pressing force detection signal generation unit, and the electrostatic sensor is connected to a contact detection signal generation unit. However, systems which use separate electrodes and/or separate electronics to sense changes in capacitance and pressures can make a touch panel more bulky and expensive. Systems in which electrodes are directly applied or patterned onto a piezoelectric film can be more complex and expensive to produce.